ReadBooksBy.Faith

All about author Faith Phillips

Faith’s Blog

2020 Visions: Let Us Advance On the Chaos

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Tuesday, April 7

2020 Visions, Part II

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not pinched in a corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and benefactors, pious aspirants to be noble clay under the Almighty effort. Let us advance on Chaos and the Dark. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

We had some very interesting moments at the beginning of the year. Someone said our classroom looked like the room of a witch. A senior asked to hear the story of how I recovered from a snake bite. A gentleman told me a hobbit joke. One of you said you didn’t want to read out loud in front of the class. The point is, as individuals and as a group, we went through a real metamorphosis during our time together. Some of our expectations came true, but for the most part, everything wonderful came from events we could not have foreseen.

Who could have guessed that our class would be on television and the radio? I never expected we would make a podcast for our research project until the week we started! Did you ever think we would be selected by NPR for national recognition?

Journal: We came together with very different expectations. What were your expectations for the year back in August 2019?  How does the current reality differ from your expectations? Do you think the difference is a good or a bad thing?

Finally, what do you aspire to become now? How will you make your plans a reality? How will you advance on the chaos? Be specific.

*Note: as we move forward through our journals I will feature a song every day from the playlists you sent yesterday. Thank you for your work and your honest. It was thoughtful, moving, and spectacular!
Song of the Day: Don’t Stop Me Now

2020 Visions, Part I

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#Seniors2020 in the paint.

We are all in this together and the time is now.

Monday, April 6

Greetings, Earthlings, I have come here to assert my world domination at long last. Oops, wrong thread. I meant to say, hello, Seniors 2020!

We made a time capsule when I was a Senior at Stilwell High School way back in 1996. It was one of the last things I did as a Stilwell Indian. Ten years later I went to my high school reunion and they handed out the items we had written (song lyrics, letters, etc.) I was shocked and delighted at 28 years old to see the things I’d written to myself as a teenager. Some people say teenagers are foolish but that is a falsehood. You’re already very wise and you know more than most. Also, no one in the world is more of an expert about you than YOU. So our final project as a class will be to read excerpts from our books and write 20 days worth of journal entries. 

If you ever have any questions or concerns about this project OR if you need anything at all you can contact me on my cell phone. I am also available throughout the day via school email: fphillips@stilwellk12.org.  

Please keep in mind this project is designed for only 15-20 minutes of daily work. This is not, I repeat, THIS IS NOT, a project to stress over, OK? I told you at the beginning of the year if you showed up, if you stuck with me and made an effort you had nothing to worry about. That has not changed. Do not stress over this work. As a matter of fact, journaling is a proven stress reliever. Use this project as your daily opportunity to de-stress. 

Every day we will have a different reading selection followed by a journal entry. If you finish this assignment all at once you’re done for the year and there will be no consequence for turning the work in early. But I ask you to be more reflective than that. Consider the project as though your writing may one day be published in a book. Many of you expressed during the school year that you would love for our class to publish a book. That is what I’m hoping for from you; thoughtful writing that captures YOU as a unique individual and personal reflections on the time we spent together. This strange year will remain a special time in my life. I will never forget you. I will do my very best to publish our year in a book. This project is due back by May 4th. Either send it back to me by email or take snapshots and text or message it to me. As a last resort, you can take the paper packet back to the office. I greatly prefer to limit our potential exposure to each other by doing the work electronically. 

When all this is over we will celebrate the real way. IN PERSON. For now, let us finish what we started. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. Here we go.  

We would have ended this year by reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and Transcendentalism by Emerson and Thoreau, featuring the essays Self-Reliance & Civil Disobedience. Both of these books emphasize independence and finding freedom in nature, among other things. They also feature journal entries. I’ll include excerpts from these two books in each assignment. This is an excerpt from Into the Wild, Chapter 1:

“April 27th 1992
Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne, arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here. Please return all the mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild. Alex.”
-Postcard received by Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota.

Assignment
We took many surveys together over the year. These were designed so I could get to know you better as a human being, not just as a student in a class. Music was an important component of our communication with each other. That’s why the first survey asked what songs you wanted to listen to while we worked. Music is therapeutic.

I can’t name all the songs you gave me here but these are just a few I distinctly remember:

Stolen Dance, Milky Chance
Graduation, Juice Wrld
Try Me, James Brown
Beautiful Crazy, Luke Combs
Crazy, Gnarls Barkley
ChaCha Slide 🙁
Zephyr Song, Red Hot Chili Peppers
You Really Got A Hold On Me, Smokey Robinson
Whiskey Lullaby, Paisley & Krauss
Tuesday’s Gone, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Now that I know you I want to take the question a step further. What songs are you listening to right now? Consider the circumstances we find ourselves in. Do you listen to a particular song to help you through this strange and challenging time?

Journal: Make a playlist of at least 5 songs to tell your story of the past year. Choose one in particular that speaks to you. Write out a few lyrics and explain how they help you continue to move forward.

Here is my song:

Strawberries in the Death Capital?

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When I agreed to teach literature this year I couldn’t have known just how intense it would prove to be. More on that later. Today my students celebrate the culmination of two months of research in just twelve minutes. Here, they call on our community to come together and begin making moves to tackle issues they didn’t create but are determined to resolve together with a coalition of our fellows. We are all in this together and the time is NOW.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are ecstatic to present you with the NPR Podcast Challenge submission from the Stilwell High School Senior Class of 2020: Strawberries in the Death Capital. A story researched, produced, written, recorded, and published by students.

Listen to Strawberries In The Death Capital by faif on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/user-427794673/strawberries-in-the-death-capital

Listen to Strawberries In The Death Capital by faif

Strawberries in the Death Capital?

Wherein I Bathe With My Editor

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Under the River Bridge

We were supposed to go to the courthouse to file our marriage license. Couldn’t find the license at first … but Trophy Husburnd hunted it down in the back of the truck. It was just a *little* rumpled. Still good though. We went to the courthouse. The clerk took one look at it and said, “you don’t have a second witness,” and sent us away. It was my one job to have my mother sign the marriage certificate. I failed.
So, conveniently, we were on our way to meet Mom and Dad for breakfast. She signed it. So we went back to the courthouse for the second time. The clerk started the filing process. For some reason I felt shocked and said, “WHEW! It’s really official!” I didn’t realize all the people in the office were listening. They started laughing. ALL OF THEM. At first I thought they must be laughing at an inside joke but, no, they were laughing at us. One of the ladies said, “your entire face just turned beet red!” And then everybody had another good round of laughs.

Finally, a nice young gentleman standing in a window box offered a word of encouragement. “Well, now at least no more stress or anxiety,” he said. I nodded my head in agreement. “Sure,” I replied, my eyes bugging out. “No stress. No anxiety.” Everyone just stood there in silence for one moment more, then they burst into laughter again. I felt like I was doing a 7 minute set at the Loony Bin.

I’m glad my Trophy Husburnd seems ok with this version of life. We often say to each other, and I actually believe it to be true, that no other human could tolerate either one of us long-term. He takes it all in stride. For the first time in my life I have granted someone editing rights over my work. If I write something that offends him and he lets me know, I will edit it out. It’s one of the perks of the job. I made the dude my Editor-in-Chief. It’s a BIG STEP. I memorialize life almost every day in some sort of writing – my journal, a silly facebook post, this blog… Not many people are willing to tolerate that level of intrusion. I happen to think he’s the only one up for the task.

After we took care of the marriage license business I said, “take me down to the river bridge.” We bathed in the river. It was 47° Fahrenheit. When we were done I asked, “do you wish you had a normal wife?” He just said, “No,” without further explanation. See what I mean?

I’m soaking up these verses about freedom from fear today:

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Deuteronomy 31:6

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:1
I like to recognize my fear and then run at it HARD until it is overcome.

I still feel very uncomfortable/insecure about the health part of this blog but I’m just going on with it until it either becomes something or I just get bored with it altogether.

Day 2 Menu

Ham and cheese omelette

Leftovers: Butternut squash, 5 oz hamburger

Spinach and blueberry tuna salad, Primal Kitchen vinaigrette, sunflower seeds (LAY OFF ME IM STARVING)

Oh yeah, I’m also drinking half my body weight in water ounces (!!!) That’s a lotta watta.

Honesty: I lost four pounds, then I gained eleven back and now I lost another four. I’ve never been good at math but I think this means I’m WINNING

(I also had 3 glasses of pinot noir tonight)

Ok, see you soon. #okienoir

Behold and Spring Forth

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For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17‭-‬18

Sometimes we are the recipients of pain brought on by others, simply because we are a safe outlet to dispose of that pain. My immediate reaction to the angst heaped on my head from others today, the first day of the New Year 2020, was irritation. January 1, whilst a man-made illusion, is still our symbolic new day, our new year, our decade, a new chapter for which I am hopeful and in anticipation of many blessings. On this day, if any, shouldn’t we be able to believe in renewal, however naive?

It’s too easy to focus in on the things that come in the moment. Depending on the events of the day, we make an emotional decision about whether the day was good or bad. But if my hope sways or surges based on words that a wounded human says to me in order to release their own pain, then how am I any different than the rest of the world? One of my good friends says, “Every day is a gift.” I believe him. We just have to keep remembering that.

Even the worst grief, we are told by the word, is merely a light affliction compared to eternal weight. With years I pray comes better understanding, on a soul-level, of the transience of these days, the transformation of my TEMPORARY body-temple made up of soil, salt & stardust … and the metamorphosis of my eternal being.

We are often told by pop psychiatrists that people don’t and/or can’t change but that is a lie of slaveholders. We are not bound by that. People DO change and we continue changing even after we die. So BEHOLD and spring forth. It is always time for hope, visionary zeal and action, wherever you are. The Time Is Now.

Speaking of change. Bear with me. Two dudes are complaining right now about all the new people at the gym. The joke’s on them … because I’m not there. The doc wants me to write positive things about my health so the best I can do here is make a joke. This is hardly an elegant plate but it does move toward the criteria I’ve been charged with in the face of a hypertension diagnosis: one-ingredient foods, 3/4 vegetables. Roasted Butternut squash, pickle and onion (I count that as veg!!!) and a 5 oz. beef patty, no cheese. Less stress. Plus, a glass of pinot noir and a piece of dark chocolate. I can still have that. Eventually I think I will have to do away with both the juice and the sauce but you know what, it’s a holiday. And I like-a the sauce. I went in for a checkup and guess what? I lost four pounds but zero inches. What kind of crap is that? Where were those four pounds? MY ANKLES???



Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?

#fattiphillips #okienoir

Wedding Song Scars and Heartbreak

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Our Wedding Photo

Wedding Song

I wrote an entire book about the man who broke my heart. Then I went and married him. This is my wedding song. The whole thing didn’t happen just as easy as that. Social media succinctly describes the situation as, “It’s Complicated”. The ultimate line is that over the course of five years and the most extreme of highs and lows, we made a choice to be together. In the weeks leading up to my marriage I found myself crying… A LOT. This was out of character. Even my fiancee, my Intended, was taken aback. We would be out on the road and I’d burst into tears for no apparent reason. He’d ask, “What’s the matter? Why are you crying?” I’d reply in a shaky voice, “It’s … OUR WEDDING!”

Not necessarily the response a fella wants to hear from his prospective bride, eh? I undertook some serious soul searching about my emotional upheaval and its implications. Then I realized I was being made vulnerable again, for the second time in my life, and not necessarily according to my own will. Over the course of twenty years I’ve been building up this armor, a hard cover, to protect myself. I’m not sorry for it – it helped me survive up to this point. But the time had come to shed its weight and welcome a new freedom. With that comes new vulnerability. I can’t help but think of the lines from that Psychedelic Funk song, Maggot Brain:

“Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time
For y’all have knocked her up
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe
I was not offended
For I knew I had to rise above it all
Or drown in my own sh*t”

Twenty years ago I had dreams not far from the dreams I have today. I lived in another world, a dream world, fashioned by books and fantastic stories. The only major difference between the Faith of age 16 and the Faith of age 40 is the callouses that formed over a few decades of weathering this world. So now I’m becoming soft again. Change. That’s all. It Comes.

The essay I’m sending you today comes from a young woman who is about the same age I was the first time I experienced heartbreak. We tend to minimize their experience. We forget that they’re going through emotional turmoil, equally as heavy as our own. The difference is they don’t yet have on their armor. They’re exposed and willing to bear the grief and joy that love brings. If that is so, then why can’t we? Ladies & Gentlemen, please consider the tender and vulnerable work of Adair County writer Chevelle Deason. She couldn’t have known it at the time she submitted this essay, but she gave us a wedding gift. Thank you, Ms. Deason:

Scars & Heartbreak

By Chevelle Deason

First loves are always so magical. They’re supposed to be, at least. Sweet moments with your partner. Hand holding. Cheesy flirts. But what happens when all your first love does is make you sad? What happens when all they manage to do is make you sob and make you want to disappear?

Two mentally ill people cannot make a stable relationship, just like two wrongs cannot equal a right. You can’t add two negatives and expect a positive. It doesn’t work out like that. An insensitive, blunt person does not mix well with an overly sensitive, soft person. One always says or does the wrong thing. One always puts more effort into the relationship than the other. One always loves harder. One always has more passion.

Maybe one knows how to lie better than the other.

In a relationship like that no one is innocent. You regret spending so much time in a horrible relationship like that. You regret your own trust and naivete. You regret giving in to manipulation. You lie awake late at night filled with anger and hurt. You can’t get it through your head that they didn’t deserve you. They didn’t deserve the love and effort you poured into the relationship, toxic or not. You regret allowing yourself to be traumatized to the point that you’re terrified to enter another relationship. You’re scared your new partner will turn out the same way.

You regret everything. You regret existence. You regret meeting, seeing, thinking of their existence. You burn with hatred, directed at the one who hurt you, but mostly directed at yourself. You’re filled with so many negative emotions that you forget…

You’re a boss.

You’re a queen.

You forget that, yeah, even though you may have had a level of fault in the failed relationship, you emerged a better person. You learned self-worth. You learned you deserve better. You learned that it’s okay to say no. You learned self-care. You learned, you grew and you healed. You’re getting better and you found someone deserving of you and all you have to give. They deserve your smile, your love, your kind words and gentle touches. 

You learned to love yourself. 

You learned that you deserve love. You deserve to be treated kindly. You deserve to be happy. Yes, you. The person reading this. No matter what you’re going through, no matter your level of pain … I believe in you. I believe you can make it through. You’re strong, despite everything. Despite the scars and the heartbreak. Despite all that … it’s still you. 

That means we can still have hope. That means we are still willing to fight for love.